The Final Countdown, and Things I Want

I'm almost there! I had another appointment today and I'm almost at a 4, and I'm 70% effaced. I'm kind of hoping to go before the induction date, but I bet with my luck I'll make it until then.

I think I'm pretty much ready for her. I washed all the baby clothes and have them all put away. The blankets and burp rags are on the shelf. We don't have diapers yet, but I don't feel like I have to have them right away. The car sear is ready to go. I might put the white onesies out in the sun to bleach them because they are kind of yellowed from spit up stains last time around.

We have all the necessaries. I do, however, have a list of things that I want. This time I have some opinions. Last time I didn't know what I'd find more convenient, so I was never sure what to get. Not so now!

I want a new diaper bag. The one we have from last time is just fine, and I'll probably end up using that, but the Ju Ju Be Between is like my dream diaper bag. It's in my dreams because it's $100. But it has so many features I love. It's got a large mom pocket on the front so I wouldn't have to carry a purse and a diaper bag. It's waterproof. The inside isn't dark so you can actually see the stuff. It's relatively small; I don't really like carrying huge bags. There's a non-slip shoulder strap that won't move when you're bending over getting kids in and out of the car. They have crumb drains to get rid of all that crumbiness that accumulates over time. It uses magnets instead of loud velcro that always wakes babies up. It's even machine washable.

I want a pouch sling baby carrier. I've been looking at Slinglings and Hotslings. I'd want something I could stuff into a diaper bag with out taking a ton of room, and non-adjustable pouches are about as small a carrier as you can get. I think I'll also get a few yards of a gauze-type material and use it as a cool wrap for this summer around the house.

I want a nursing cover. Using blankets to cover up never really works well. Baby is always pulling them off, and you're continually readjusting. I found a pattern online that I might try out...

I want a baby swaddler. Lindsay would wriggle her way out of a swaddled blanket pretty quickly, and then she'd always startle and wake up feeling like she was falling because her arms were free. Velcro that baby in!

I'm going to need a budget! :) I'll probably accumulate it slowly, just like last time. What a burden, to develop opinions and taste in baby gear!

Baby News!

My 37 weeks appointment was today. I'm at 2.5 cm and 60% effaced. That's a lot further than I thought I'd be!

So my doctor went ahead and let me schedule an induction date. So July 15th is the date, if not sooner. I've been having a lot more contractions than with Lindsay, or maybe I'm just noticing them more. I'm wondering if I'll even make it! That would be nice.

Any bets on when Baby Kate will come? (Yep, we've decided on Kate.)

I Had A Dream

That Michael Jackson's death was an elaborate hoax, and he appeared on Oprah the next day. For publicity, I suppose.

Weekend Family Wedding

We're back, all safe and sound. We got back Sunday night.

We ended up renting a car, as our car wasn't able to be repaired in time. Hotwire made renting not too expensive for us, and I really appreciated the A/C the whole time. Unfortunately, they ended up giving us a Chevy HHR, which is one of the ugliest cars ever made. I felt self-conscious driving down the highway in this thing.

On the drive up on Friday we got to spend some time with friends who just left Nashville to move to Cincinnati. We went out to lunch, and then hit IKEA. It was fun hanging out with them.

We had a whole list of things to get at IKEA. Our new kitchen is pretty small. Or at least it's small if you have to have a table in there, too, so we purchased the Norden Gateleg table. We put it together last night, and wow is there a ton more space in our kitchen now. With a few fold up chairs to go along with the table, we can actually open the fridge with out hitting something. We got some smaller items, too, like a road rug for Lindsay that we'll put in the tiled basement, the kids' wooden train set, and a couple cheap end tables.

Oh, upside to the ugly car was there was enough room for all of our furniture purchases! IKEA does a good job packing them small, but we were still pretty glad that we had a big storage space in the back.

After visiting and shopping, we drove the last hour up to Cedarville, Ohio where we were staying for the wedding. Family slowly trickled in, and we all went out to a later dinner at a nearby restaurant. They had a fun tractor outside that the kids played on, and, uh, some cow statues.

The next day was wedding day. Everything ended up going smoothly, that day at least. The ceremony was short and sweet. (I use both those adjectives deliberately.) Lindsay and her cousin got to dress up to be more adorable than usual.



Afterward, we headed back to the reception hall for a catered dinner and more pictures. We tried to get a nice picture of our little family, but it's hard with a toddler. But notice how good the pregnant lady looks in all of the pictures! I know how to smile for the camera.



During the reception, this was the view we had most of the time. The hall was on a river, and Lindsay just could not keep herself away. She also seemed to have developed some sort of growth in her ears covering the eardrums where she just could not hear us when we told her to come back. Because it could not have been that she was ignoring us.

We actually left the reception a little early. Toddlers will do that to you. At least we stayed long enough to get cake, which is a very important part. :)

Sunday morning we started the drive back home. We made a stop in Louisville to visit some more friends and go to church with them. Afterward we had dinner with them, which was much appreciated because we were starting to get sick of snack food at that point. We also got a tour of their newly purchased home, which we ooh-ed and ah-ed over, only a little bit jealous. Lindsay got to get a break out of the car and play with their two little boys.

At that point we really had to get back, since we had a time limit for the rental car. Did you know it costs $20 an hour after your turn in time, and $120 for a whole extra day? Crazy. I'm glad we got it in with plenty of time.

So I didn't go into labor while we were there, obviously. However, my ankles did swell to the size of large grapefruits, dimples and all. It was pretty amazing. Car rides and lots of walking and sitting will do that to a gestating woman in June. My job these past couple of days has been taking it easy and keeping my feet up in an attempt to lower the swelling. I've got the next doctor's appointment tomorrow, and I want to be presentable.

Checked off the to-do list: Peter's brother's wedding.
Next on the to-do list: Have a baby.

Bad, Good, and Up In The Air

Bad Thing:
Our car broke down. Again. Last time it just turned out to be a really old finicky battery with bad connections. Not too bad to fix. This time we were backing up and shifted into drive, yet the car did not leave reverse. Trying to shift to any other gear didn't work. Still in reverse. Turned the car off and tried to start it again. Would not start, probably because it's still in reverse.

Good Thing:
I had my first doctor's appointment where they check how far along you are. And I'm one centimeter. Yay!

Up In The Air Thing:
We're planning on going to Peter's brother's wedding this weekend. The Bad Thing is Bad, because we need a car to get there. We have another car, actually, but the AC doesn't work, and I'm thinking it would be a bad thing for a pregnant lady at 37 weeks to be that hot for that long. But the Good Thing is Good, because it means that if we can get the car fixed, I should be good to go. Still, I'm making a list of hospitals along the route...

On the Bright Side

One upside to having swollen, puffy ankles is that it's really easy to shave them. Now if only I could reach down that far and breathe at the same time...

One month left!

Real (not faked) Photographs

Random pictures because we have a new camera and can actually take them.

Taking a nap under the bed. On the hardwood floor. How she slept for longer than five minutes, I'll never know.

"Look Mommy! It's my new hat!"

A popular food this summer in our house

Wearing Daddy's shoes

Not really being able to walk in Daddy's shoes

The New Camera

We've got a couple of big life events coming up in the schedule, so we figured we really should just get a new camera (Brother-in-law's wedding, a birth.) We ended up getting a Canon Powershot A480. It's cheaper in price than a lot of cameras, which was pretty important to us. But all the reviews were really good. Many said the picture quality is just as good or better than more expensive cameras. It doesn't have all the little cool features, but to be honest our last camera had all the cool features and we didn't use them. I just need a point and shoot that takes decent photographs.

It's also pretty small. It'll be very easy just to stick in the purse. It's lightweight, though not quite as thin as some of the smallest cameras out there right now.

Here's one of the first pictures taken with the camera.

You can tell how thrilled Lindsay is with the new camera.

Lindsay's First Haircut

Her hair was getting so unruly so I decided it was time to give her a haircut. I was a little sad because she has such beautiful curls and I didn't want to mess them up. This was more than a month ago, on May 2nd.

Here's the before picture. You can see how easily it got tangled.

It was actually quite long when it was wet and brushed. Hmm, it looks a little red in this picture. Nice!


She kept moving just as I was going to start cutting, so it took a few tries to make that first cut. She was really good through the whole thing. This may have had something to do with the portable DVD player we put in front of her.

Here's some after pics:

It's a more uniform length, a lot easier to take care of, and still curly! Yay!

Fritzy Camera

I want to post new pictures of our place, but our camera is not working very well. It's saying it's low on batteries after putting new ones in after taking only a couple of pictures. And then the camera shuts down. I'm not sure what's wrong with it. It's a Canon Powershot A620, and it's been a great camera for a couple of years.

I'm not sure how to fix it, so I think we may be looking into getting a new point 'n click. Preferably one of those compact ones that fit so easily in a purse. And then after that I want a nice DSLR, but that's a little bit further down on the list of wants...

Basement Entertainment

Last night we finished our new entertainment area for the basement. We added all the expenses up, and it turned out pretty cheap. But not pretty. But thanks to Craigslist (I've been going a little Craigslist crazy recently) and people just giving things away for free, it didn't cost too much.

Black couch - $50
LaZBoy recliner - $20
Green vinyl recliner - Free
Rug - $20
32" CRT TV - $35
Entertainment Center cabinet - Free

Aren't we thrifty? Too bad nothing matches. :)

The TV was probably the best deal. It seems so huge compared to our other 20 incher. We'll be having lots of fun watching movies and playing Wii on it.

Moving Updates

Well, the move went well. We had my family and tons of friends come to help us, so the actual moving truck part only took about two hours. Also, another friend watched Lindsay the whole day, which made it go so much smoother. Thanks, everyone!

We officially got out of the old apartment last Wednesday after I spent Tuesday cleaning and scrubbing. Some amazing and/or crazy and/or very bored friends came over to help with that, too. With their help, it only took an afternoon and the whole place was cleaned top to bottom. We even got behind the refrigerator. I haven't ever moved into a rental where the people before cleaned out behind the fridge. Thanks to those friends who helped a very pregnant lady scrub her dirty house. (It's amazing how many dust bunnies can hide behind furniture that you never move.)

We are still unpacking, and probably will be for a while. My goal is to have it all ready by the time Baby arrives. So far the kitchen, bathroom, our bedroom, and the desk are all set up. Lindsay's room still needs some work. The basement is where all the rest of the boxes are floating around, so that'll be the last to be done.

This new place is another two bedroom one bath, just like our last place. The upstairs is probably slightly bigger than our minuscule last apartment. The upside to this new place is that the downstairs is the same size as the whole upstairs. So we basically doubled our square footage. Nice!

The yard is great, too. Unfortunately the mosquitoes have been going a little crazy lately, and we haven't been able to enjoy it too much. More unfortunately, we found some poison ivy on a couple of trees that we'll need to get rid of before we can give Lindsay full reign. There's some major potential itchiness going on back there right now.

In a week or two maybe we'll have this place nice enough to have people over. Though I'm finding it really annoying that you have to keep doing normal chores in addition to unpacking all the boxes. Not fair.

The True Test of Intelligence

Lindsay: Mommy, you are smart.

Me: Am I? How do you know?

Lindsay: You have hair in your nose.

Mm Hmmm.

The Move

If you read Peter's blog at all, you're probably aware that we're moving this weekend to a bigger place close by. So my mind hasn't really been on blogging so much as moving logistics and organizing the new place and cleaning the old place.

I've got a few posts in mind (first hair cuts, potty training updates, games, of course), but you'll have to wait until the dust settles.

Harpeth River State Park

One Friday (April the 17th to be exact), Peter got off work early. It was one of the first beautiful days of spring, so we went out and explored. We decided to visit a State Park nearby and have lunch. Harpeth River State Park has ten areas all along the river. We just hit two of them: Newsom's Mill Ruins and Hidden Lake State Natural Area.

We ate lunch overlooking the river, and then walked down to the spillway and sat there for a little while, enjoying the view.Lindsay was fascinated with the river. She loved it. And me.

You can see the remains of the mill behind Peter and Lindsay in this picture. There were a couple of groups that brought in canoes and kayaks. I was very jealous. I think we'll have to go down this river sometime.

 

We headed over to the Hidden Lake area next. Lindsay was running ahead of us, and I had to yell at her to stop because we could see a snake sunning itself on the trail to Hidden Lake. It was kind of big, but I don't think it was poisonous. We sidestepped it and kept going on.

There weren't any signs of how long the trail was, so we kept wondering when we'd get there. It only ended up being a mile long, but when you're not sure where you're going, and you're with a toddler, that can be worrisome.

 

 We made it! Lindsay threw some rocks from the area by the shore, and then we headed up to an overlook for a photo op. We weren't sure, but we think it used to be a rock quarry that was abandoned and filled up with water. It was kind of eerily quiet. Lindsay helped us out, however, with the lack of noise.

By this point we were all pretty thirsty, so we ended our outing with a trip to Sonic during their Happy Hour. Strawberry Lime slushes... Mmmmm! It was a nice day.

Casual Game Friday: Crush the Castle

Here's something a little different. Crush the Castle is a shooter type game set long ago when trebuchets were the siege weapon of choice. Use various types of ammo and the correct aim to knock the castles down and, ahem, do in everyone inside the castles. There's a  campaign of four and twenty castles to get through that will make your afternoon go by quickly. I'm up to level 21.

This game probably isn't too kid-friendly; when the castle-inhabitants die, there's digital blood and a scream. It's not gory, but just thought I'd let you know.

Play Crush the Castle!

Easter 2009

April 10th was the day before Easter, and Lindsay got invited to an Easter Egg hunt, her first one!

She made me hold the basket for her while she searched for eggs.

One of her more difficult finds! A lot of the ones she picked up were just in the grass.

Good job, Lindsay!

All done! Or maybe this is at the beginning? I can't remember. But doesn't she look cute!

She got to wear her new dress for Easter Sunday, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it. So I hope the above cute pictures will suffice.

Farmer's Market Trip

A fun trip to the Nashville Farmer's Market with Grammy last Saturday, May 2nd.

Stopping and smelling the flowers with Mommy

Dinner with all produce from the Market that evening: corn on the cob, new potatoes with vidalia onions, fresh spinach, and marinated chicken tenders.

Delicious!

And apparently fuzzy.

My First All-By-Myself Sewing Project

For Christmas I got a new sewing machine, but I never did get a project together to sew until a couple of weeks ago. I'll blame morning sickness for a lot of putting it off, and then finding a project simple enough to do.

A friend gave me a simple pattern to use that I was pretty sure I could handle. It's just a simple skirt for a toddler. All you have to do is cut the fabric from selvege to selvege (edge to edge) and then stick in the elastic and sew the ribbon on the bottom. Here's a link to the directions. It only took me a couple of hours, and that included setting up the sewing machine for the first time.

Here's the finished project.

I found a cute yellow shirt to match it. She looks adorable in it. Maybe I'll have to use some of the same fabric for baby number two and they can do matchy-matchy.

Pregnancy Thus Far

Perhaps I shall start blogging again...

The pregnancy is going well. I had another doctor's appointment yesterday. I'm at the point where it feels like I'm always going to the doctor's office. Anyway, it went well. My gestational diabetes test came back great, as well as my hemoglobin count. It was exceptionally high, which I am of course inordinately proud of. Go, hemoglobins!

My doctor let Lindsay help with the sonogram for checking the heartrate. When the doctor found the heartbeat, Lindsay yelled, "I did it!" Very cute.

Things going not-so-well in my pregnancy include annoying side effects such as:

Heartburn--Thank you, Prevacid.
Sore hips--Turning over in bed is pretty painful
Tiredness--This may be more related to Lindsay than pregnancy...
Swelling--My wedding ring is starting to get tight. Last time I had to take it off for the last month or so.
Belching--I think it's caused by certain things I eat, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly what it is yet. But whatever it is, I start burping for hours.
Sideburns--I noticed this in the mirror the other week, and I was like WHAT?!?! Turns out hormones called androgens can make pregnant women hairy in places they weren't before. Not fair. At least my hair isn't dark. Sigh. It goes away after the baby is born, thankfully.
Squished bladder--It seems that I spend more time in the bathroom than in bed at night.
Squished lungs--I can't take a full breath anymore, so it always feels that I'm a little out of breath.

But even though I kind of always feel blah, all the important parts of the pregnancy are going well. The baby is healthy so far as we can tell, and I'm surviving just fine, despite all the complaining I may do.

This is the latest belly pic I have. It's at 25 weeks. I'm at 29 now, so I need an updated picture.